Amanda Knits

I had the weirdest knitting in public experience ever today.

I was taking the subway and leaning against the wall, knitting. Across from me there were four seats. Three of the seats were occupied by older people and I didn't feel the need to sit down. The woman across from me kept looking at me and I was glancing at her (and everyone else, really, on the subway).

All of a sudden I felt someone grab my arm and the woman started scolding me (I think) about how I could sit down. She yanked me to the seat so fast it was like a cartoon—my bag sort of flew out behind me as I said, "OK, OK, kamsamnida, kamsamnida!" She threw me in the seat so quickly I nearly bashed the gentleman on the other side in the head.

Once I sat down, she pointed at my knitting and stared at me, so I showed her what I was working on and pantomimed rocking a baby. She looked very happy and watched me for the rest of the ride.

I was taking the subway to see the Picasso exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art with Leslie. It was very interesting and I enjoyed it. I picked up two bags for only 3,000 won each (about $3). They're made of this...papery material that I don't expect will hold up forever, but at that price, who cares?

I made a swatch for the baby jacket. I have had cotton bleed before, but this was amazing.

After a few minutes in the water...

Then I lifted it up and squeezed it...and this is one of the lighter pictures.

I soaked it again (it was soaked in hot and cold water for nearly two hours) and these bubbles showed up on the surface of the yarn. I don't think I've seen yarn do this.

I knew this cotton would shrink. The problem is that my washer combo drier doesn't really dry clothes so much as bounces them back and forth in wet air. So I washed the swatch in the hottest water possible and dried it for as long as possible. It still came out sopping wet (sigh!) but it had indeed shrunk about 15%.

Now I've changed my chart to make up for that difference. Let's see how this turns out...

I also realized post-swatching that I didn't have enough yarn. So I stopped by the yarn store again and managed to get more red and navy yarn. This was exciting because I don't know my Korean colors yet and there was a man working there rather than the woman I worked with before. I am pretty sure that dye lots...well, yeah, no such thing. So near the end of one ball I'm alternating every two rows to prevent a very obvious line.